Squiggle Read Online Free PDF Page A

crowd was so thick that everyone had to walk slowly and stop a lot. Every kind of person was in that crowd. Little babies were being wheeled and carried everywhere. Little old people, at least one-hundred-and-fifty years old, crutched along on aluminum walkers. A little boy said, “Daddy, Daddy, eye wunt cot’n candy!” A little girl said, “Mommy, Mommy, lookit! Monkeys!”
    The baby stroller had just reached the monkey cages. Squiggle kept a sharp watch as they went past cage after cage. She had seen herself in a mirror, and so she had a good idea of what kind of monkey to look for. But none of them seemed right. Some kinds were too big. Some kinds were too small. Most of them were brown, or white, or golden. One rare tropical kind was bright blue and had seven legs. The very last cage in the row had a sign over it that said, “Colobus Monkeys from Zaire.” Without even waiting to get a closer look at them, Squiggle leaped out of the baby carriage and jumped through the iron bars into the cage. Being a stuffed animal, she was able to squeeze between the bars quite easily.
    Nobody noticed her except for Baby, who waved goodbye to her; and the twenty-seven Zairean Colobus in the cage, who went berserk. They leaped to the very top back corner of the cage where they hung in a tangle of limbs and tails, and made a horrendous sound something like, “Gaaak! Awwwk! Blaaaah!”
    This is how Zairean Colobus react when something unexpected jumps into their cage. They are easily frightened. Monkeys are generally scatterbrained and nervous animals. But Squiggle didn’t know this, and the reaction of the monkeys startled her.
    The noise attracted the attention of everyone who was standing nearby. “Daddy, Daddy,” a little boy said, “look at the funny monkey scaring all the other ones!”
    In three seconds a crowd formed in front of the cage. Everyone was shouting in excitement and having a wonderful time. Even a police officer appeared, and took out his note pad in case he had to write anything down.
    A flock of zookeepers arrived. The head zookeeper shouted, “What’s going on here?” He had a huge hat shaped like a Tyrannosaurus rex standing on its hind legs with its mouth open (although there were no tyrannosaurs at this particular zoo). When he pressed a button the tyrannosaur hat roared hugely and the eyes flashed red, like a police siren with a sore throat. “Let me through!” he shouted, pressing his hat button to help clear a path through the crowd. “What’s going on?” The other zookeepers, who were less important, had smaller hats shaped like other animals.
    â€œThe monkeys are escaping!” someone shouted.
    â€œThe monkeys are eating each other!” someone else shouted.
    â€œA gorilla got into the monkey cage!” a third person shouted. “And it’s jumping up and down and squashing all the other monkeys!”
    â€œA gorilla?” the police officer said. “Did you say a gorilla?” It was Officer Poe, of course. “Catch it! That gorilla is wanted by the law, for murdering a little girl!” He pulled out a pair of handcuffs.
    The crowd surged against the bars of the cage. The people who were right up against the bars stuck their hands through and tried to grab Squiggle, but she was just out of reach. Everyone was shouting, “Catch it! He said it was a murderer! It murdered a little gorilla! No, it is a little gorilla! Grab it! Don’t let it get out!”
    Squiggle cowered on the cement floor in terror. She saw a tiny square opening at the back of the cage. She didn’t know where it led, but in a panic she ran for it and whisked inside.
    She scampered down a cement tunnel that smelled awful. (Actually, it smelled like monkey.) Then she turned a bend, and found herself in a different part of the cage that was inside of a building. This inside part of the cage was where the monkeys went if